Hyderabad may lose 19.4 lakh voters in SIR exercise, electorate set to shrink 41 per-cent

Hyderabad: Hyderabad’s electorate could shrink by around 41 per cent as part of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Telangana. The projected reduction is similar to that in Bengaluru, where the electorate fell by 43 per cent, from 1,03,88,363 to 59,08,151.

The city’s voter count is expected to fall from 47,36,669 before the SIR to a little over 28 lakh, even if all 12.49 lakh electors served notices are retained in the final rolls, along with new additions. This translates into a reduction of nearly 41 per cent, which could rise further if more electors are excluded following the hearing process. Electors who fail to attend hearings could face exclusion from the final rolls.

According to information released by the Telangana Chief Electoral Officer’s office, Hyderabad’s 15 Assembly constituencies had 47,36,669 electors before the SIR, of whom 27,95,225 submitted enumeration forms. A total of 19,41,444 electors were categorised under the Absent, Shifted, Death and Double (ASDD) categories.

As of Thursday, 12,53,876 SIR notices had been generated for electors whose enumeration forms had discrepancies. Of these, 12,49,026 had been delivered, while 4,850 were pending delivery.

Hearings for 12,07,629 electors had been completed as of Thursday. However, 45,424 first hearings and 823 rescheduled hearings had lapsed. Following the hearings, 11,42,490 voters had been marked for inclusion in the final electoral rolls. This included 6,28,722 electors with logical discrepancies and 5,13,768 electors who could not be mapped to the 2002 SIR rolls.

Another 15,41,296 electors whose enumeration forms had no discrepancies had already been marked for inclusion in the final rolls. Together, these bring Hyderabad’s electorate to 26,83,786. The city also recorded 39,101 applications for new voter registrations, of which 33,652 had been approved.

Telangana CEO officials attributed the low voter turnout across Hyderabad’s 15 Assembly constituencies in successive elections to entries in the ASDD categories. “As the ASDD voters are being removed from the rolls, we will get clean rolls. We can expect around 90 per cent turnout in the next elections in Hyderabad,” officials said.

Rangareddy district, which has the second-highest electorate in the State, is also likely to see its voter count fall by at least 35 per cent. Before the SIR, the district had 36,99,743 voters, of whom 24,12,652 submitted enumeration forms, while 12,87,091 had been categorised under ASDD.

A total of 12,33,491 SIR notices had been generated and served on electors in the district. Hearings had been completed for 12,33,418 electors, and 11,89,543 names had been cleared for inclusion in the final electoral rolls, while 13,338 voters had been found ineligible.